Improve Your Organizations Bottom-Line

We have been swamped with many requests over the past few weeks to help organizations get their projects on track. In these economic times they can no longer respond to requests for more money, more time and/or more resources. However, they do need these projects to be completed quickly. Most of them have a direct impact on the organization's bottom-line because they are introducing a new product or service that is desperately needed by their customers. If these are not quickly released, they will lose these customers to their competitors. This will have a devastating impact on their bottom-line (which is already hurting). Does this sound familiar?

We have begun working on a number of these projects. It is a dynamic process to undertake. We start by researching the project team structure, scope, plan, risk assessment, customer and business requirements, etc. We are finding that 60% of these projects are overdue by at least a year and are considerably over budget. The rest are not even close to meeting the customer and business requirements. (they're still arguing over the technology, the science, etc.) They need fast action. So we arrange to lock them into a room for an entire week (the project manager and all key resources on the project). During the week we re-examine the project's customer and business requirements, scope, team structure and project plan. We finish with a risk assessment. In all cases they have told us that they never thought we needed a week (and many fought not to spend this much time) but in the end couldn't believe the relief and clarity of direction they now have.

The greatest reward for us is to see the light bulbs in their heads go off (the room gets awfully bright by the time the week is finished). They always realize they never really understood the project, it's mandate, etc. Nor did they realize what a detailed project plan really meant (not 250 line items). The risk assessments helped identify what might prevent success and provided them the opportunity to put in contingencies to manage these.

You can improve your organization's financial situation by getting your projects on-track. They are a major source of revenue drain.

Changing Organizational Culture

I recently read an article that suggested organizational culture cannot be changed. I would rather not mention the author but did want to respond to this comment. It has been our experience that organizational culture can be changed. It is not quick and easy. However, it is a journey worth pursuing. There are many organizations that have a negative, even abusive culture. To suggest that this cannot be changed, rather, it can only be managed, as the author suggests, is a very sad comment. These cultures experience high employee turnover, top-down decision making and poor customer relationsh.

On the positive side, we know that these cultures can be changed and improved. We have taken organizations through this journey and seen their productivity and employee satisfaction increase. I agree that this is a difficult change to undertake but the rewards are clear. Engagement of all employees is crucial. We find that the change is achievable when the desire is there. It is often driven by a need for improved bottom-line results and/or customer relations and/or staff retention. As well, it sometimes advisable to start at a department level. This is often an easier place to start before moving into full-scale organizational implementation.

I'm interested in other's experiences. Let me know what yours have been.
Thanks,
Michael

Innovation - Creating the Strategic Opportunities

The teams had worked hard. They brainstormed the innovations, grouped them, formed their teams, identified the benefits and overcome the obstacles. Now they were ready for the last stage of the innovation process. This stage is where some understanding of project management helps. The teams prepared themselves to present their ideas and the process to successfully implement them, to the association's management. However, without some detail regarding how they should be implemented, by whom, with what resources, what budget requirements and within what time frame; it is unlikely the association will be able to take these innovations and move them into reality. This last stage is crucial and often overlooked. Great ideas but they don't go anywhere. Just like many strategic plans, they sit on someone's shelves - rarely to implemented. Some associations with whom I have worked successfully implemented many of the innovations. They have seen positive impacts on attendance, content, etc. Others are still sitting with them, wondering how to increase attendance at their conferences and other events. Not realizing they have the answers. Their members already provided it to them. Please don't let this happen to you. If you're going to use this process, let me know. I'd love to help ensure it has a tremendous, positive impact on you.

Innovation - Overcoming the Obstacles

The teams identified the benefits of moving forward with their innovations. Realistically, there are barriers or obstacles to implementing these, despite their benefits. These can be as fundamental as budget, history, culture, time, resources, etc. They may be more advanced such as technology, organizational structure, departmental layouts, etc. Regardless, the team brainstormed all of the obstacles and discussed how to overcome most of them. This did take some time. Research was required for some of them. Benchmarking against other organizations was also necessary. This helped to uncover what other organizations had done in similar situations. Once all obstacles were identified the teams discussed and recorded the strategies needed to overcome these barreirs. Now we were ready for the last stage of the innovation process.

Innovation - Beginning the Process

I've been on the road for awhile but it's time for me to continue my story. As you may recall, the teams labelled each group of ideas, for example, “registration process”, “speakers”, “social”, “receptions”, etc. Then they went to each group and began exploring them in more depth. It is critically important they no process of elimination of any ideas is permitted. Only exact duplicates can be removed.

The teams began to identify and list out the benefits of moving forward with each group of ideas. "What will be the benefit of using the ideas in under the registration process group?" What will be the benefits of the ideas, if implemented, under the speaker group?" etc. If you think for a moment of the greatest inventions of all time you'll probably think of the light bulb, electricity, the phone, the car, etc. Before moving forward with all of the ideas which led to these "group of thoughts", the inventors spent time thinking about the benefits before moving into the next stages of their innovation process.

My next blog will give you the next steps in the innovation process.

Innovation - The Next Steps to Improve Your Conferences

My last Blog introduced you to the concept of holding an Innovation session for conference attendees focussed on creating the “ideal” conference format. I started the session by asking everyone to brainstorm everything that would happen, that they would be engaged in, that they would experience, etc. that would make it an amazing conference. Each idea was written on post-it notes. One idea per post-it note. No discussion, this is done individually. Then I had them break into teams of 8. Each team posted their notes onto flip chart paper and began the process of combining similar ideas into groups. This process, known as the development of an Affinity Diagram, generated many different groups of ideas in each team. They labelled each group. For example, “registration process”, “speakers”, “social”, “receptions”, etc. My next Blog will discuss the next steps.

Innovation - How to Get it Going at Your Conference

My last Blog spoke about the need to be more innovative in how conferences are managed. It is very difficult for staff and volunteers to break the mould. It is always easier to introduce small, incremental change. The best place to start on the Innovation Journey is to engage the conference participants. At the American Society for Quality’s World Conference I held two back-to-back concurrent sessions focussed on how to create an “ideal” conference for them. I needed a full morning to do this, hence the need for back-to-back sessions. When published in the conference brochure, it was certainly a different type of session from all of the others. Nevertheless, 150 people showed up. Wow!!! My next Blog will explain how I managed the session.